AkzoNobel has announced that it has signed a joint venture with Saudi Arabian company Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo to extend their existing partnership with a view to growing its Middle East operations.

The current deal between the pair only covers the sale of AkzoNobel's International Paint brand, alongside coil and packaging coatings.

Following the new agreement, however, Kanoo will sell products from across its Performance Coatings range, including professional coatings products for wood care, automotive refinish, marine, yacht, fire protection and powder coatings.

Leif Darner, Akzo Nobel's executive committee member for its Performance Coatings division, said: "We are very pleased to build on our long-standing relationship with the Kanoo family by signing this agreement.

"It will give us a firm foothold in the Middle East and a solid platform from which to deliver on our ambitious growth strategy in the region. We see many opportunities for our products and services to supply the construction, oil and gas and transportation sectors in the Middle East and this deal will ensure that we are better placed to serve our customers."

Mishal Kanoo, deputy chairman for Kanoo in the UAE and Oman, added: "Our relationship with AkzoNobel goes back over 30 years and we look forward to supporting the company in its ambition to be a leading supplier of performance coatings in both the UAE and Saudi Arabia."

AkzoNobel currently employs more than 200 people across its two main plants in the Middle East. Both sites are planning increased investments to support the enlarged business portfolio, with work on a new powder coatings facility in Dubai having already started.

In an interview which appears in the forthcoming edition of Construction Week, AkzoNobel's Middle East MD admits that the region "has probably not been focused on as much as it should have been" as the firm chased growth in China, South East Asia and in Brazil, among other areas.

"At the moment our turnover is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars, rather than multiples of that," says Tomlinson.

"However, within the last 18 months, the Middle East has really become a focus for our company, and our ambition is to grow significantly from where we are today.”